Some members have been wondering what happened between Billy Mills and this Discussion Forum. After dozens of posts and emails from him that we did attempt to answer in a timely way, NOMSV sent him the following letter:

Dear Bill Mills:

We are NOMSV's President, respectively, for 2000-2002 and 2002-2004. The webmaster has shown us the string of emails and posts that you have sent to NOMSV recently, including your posts that were deleted from the Bulletin Board.

First, let us say we are sorry that you are in such pain right now. It must be terrible to feel that an organization that you trusted has betrayed you. However, we do not agree with you that we have done anything out of line. Your personal information was in a profile that you yourself put on the web site, and which you knew was open for all to see. NOMSV did nothing to publicize it except to note this fact. As for whether your posts were abusive, this is a matter of judgment and interpretation, and we reserve the right to make those decisions. You were told this when you joined the Bulletin Board. Please note that everyone is asked to agree to the statement at the end of this letter when they join, in which we are clear that we "reserve the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever." We followed this policy as stated below, and as agreed to by you and all other members of the Bulletin Board.

Note that many of the people in NOMSV are themselves survivors and understand all too well what it means to be abused. Therefore we understand how you feel, on the one hand, but have no intention of allowing ourselves to be abused by you, on the other.

We hope you will get help for the extraordinary amount of pain you are feeling, but as of now we feel that the decision to suspend you from the Bulletin Board is appropriate and we will continue the suspension. We will be willing to reconsider the suspension at some future time if you tell us that you understand why we did what we did and agree that we will monitor any posts you put on the Board. Certainly we cannot do this while you are sending us profane, threatening, and insulting emails blaming us for what we consider to be responsible actions. If, as you have told us, you elect to bring in your lawyer and the Better Business Bureau, then you are suspended pending resolution of the problem. If it is resolved in your favor, we will issue an apology and reinstate you as long as you follow the rules and understand that we have the right to delete any posts that we deem objectionable for any reason.

Sincerely,

Ken Singer, LCSWNOMSV President2000-2002

Richard Gartner, PhDNOMSV President2002-2004

This is the statement that everyone who joins the Bulletin Board has agreed to:

Considering the real-time nature of this bulletin board, it is impossible for us to review messages or confirm the validity of information posted. Please remember that we at NOMSV do not actively monitor the contents of and are not responsible for any messages posted. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of NOMSV or any entity associated with NOMSV. Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by email. We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately.

You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this BB to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law. You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this BB.

Although this BB does not and cannot review the messages posted and is not responsible for the content of any of these messages, we at this BB reserve the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless this BB, Madrona Park, Inc. (the makers of the bulletin board software), and their agents with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s).

NOMSV also reserves the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

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